PHONY ‘SCRIPT’A Providence man was remanded to the ACI on Jan. 5 after police arrested him at the CVS store in Meadowbrook and charged him with attempting to fill a phony prescription for the painkiller oxycodone. Officer Raymond Cox reported he was dispatched to the store for a prescription fraud in progress. He said Sgt. Margaret McKay was at the scene and asked for someone to cover the door but then she said she had the suspect at the pharmacy counter. Cox said he spoke with the pharmacist who became suspicious of a prescription presented by someone he didn’t know that looked like it might be fake by someone who was not in the system for that store or any other CVS branch. He told Cox he called the doctor’s practice and learned that other pharmacies had already called about similar prescriptions and they were all counterfeits. The pharmacist said he then stalled the man who presented the script while he called the police. Police subsequently learned that the suspect, identified as Douglas Vaugh Cooper, 47, of 68 Dartmouth Ave. in Providence also had outstanding warrants from District and Superior Courts for failure to appear. He was remanded to the ACI when he could not come up with the $6,728 surety bail.

MISSING WHEELSOfficer Eric Lima reported he was on patrol on Universal Boulevard around 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 1 when he saw a car in the lot of the Smokey Bones restaurant up on two cinder blocks with two of its wheels missing. He said he located the owner of the car working in the restaurant who was surprised to learn that his car was up on blocks. He said he came to work around noon that day and was unaware that anything was amiss until police came in around 8:45 p.m. and told him what happened to his 1994 Honda Accord. He said the wheels would cost at least $125 each to replace and that he would press charges if they found out who took his wheels. No suspects or witnesses. The report was forwarded to detectives.

STOLEN TOOLSOfficer William Castaldi reported that a large air compressor went missing from Excel Tire Gauge on Knight Street sometime over the New Year’s weekend. The manager of the company told Castaldi her came to work around 7 a.m. on Jan. 2 and realized that machine that provided the air power for their machinery was missing. He showed Castaldi where the power line was cut and the hoses removed from the compressor before it was hauled off. He said the machine cost around $1,000. He said there were a number of people who went behind the building to collect scrap metal and suspected that some among them were responsible for the theft from the secured metal closet behind the building but there were no suspects or witnesses.Officer Brain Murray went to a residence on Mystic Drive on Dec. 30 for a report of a missing extension ladder. He told Murray that he remembered that he last saw the ladder leaning up against a shed in the yard a round two weeks before. He said he was mentioning the missing ladder to a man who lived on Lemac Street, behind his house, and his neighbor informed him two other ladders that were missing from his backyard and that they were last seen two weeks before. The man said his own ladder was a 30’ aluminum extension ladder. The neighbor’s ladders were also aluminum; one was an 8’ stepladder and the second was a 30’ extension. He also mentioned that a lawnmower was stolen from his yard several months ago and he wondered if the thefts were related. No suspects or witnesses.Officer Robert Hart reported the theft of a 24’ aluminum staging plank and a 20’ length of aluminum gutter went missing from a backyard on Church Avenue on Dec. 24. The owner told Hart the staging plank was about one foot wide and had a rope attached. He told Hart he believed whoever took must have had a truck. He said the plank was worth $600 and the gutter worth $40.

VEHICLES HITOfficer William DiGiulio reported a larceny from a car parked at Uncle Tony’s Pizza on Lambert Lind Highway on Dec. 31. A woman told DiGiulio she parked her car in the lot to go to the nearby Mardi Gras nightclub complex around 9:45 p.m. and found the front driver’s side window smashed when she returned around 12:15 a.m. and saw her $150 purse, $200 iPod and $300 sunglasses were missing. He said her wallet, two prescriptions, and a checkbook were in the purse. No suspects.A manager for Cowesett Motors on Quaker Lane told police he came to work on Dec. 27 and found two vehicles in his lot were missing parts. He said a $150 bed rail from a 2005 F-150 pickup truck was missing and a $600 fuel filler door and assembly from a 2004 F-150 were gone. No witnesses.A $250 iPod and$200 Alpine stereo and other components worth a total of $215 were missing from vehicles parked at the Fairfax Village apartments on Dec. 27. No suspects.An Aberdeen Avenue resident told police he found his SUV had been entered sometime overnight on Jan. 2 and took about $70 in cash he left in the vehicle. He said a $20 pair of gloves and some paperwork were also gone. No witnesses.

THE CHASEOfficer John Choquette reported he was on patrol when he heard a dispatch about a shoplifting suspect fleeing the Walmart on Post Road toward Atlantic Avenue, followed by a report that the suspect had been caught on Atlantic Avenue. He said he met up with Sgt. Andrew Sullivan and took the suspect into custody. A loss prevention agent from the store came and identified the suspect as the man who fled from her when she confronted him outside the store. Police said they got a call later in the day from a family on Shirley Street that reported finding the battery and HDMI adapter worth a total of $32 that John C. Taylor Jr., 25, of 34 Sherwood St. in Providence was accused of steatling.

IN CIRCLESOfficer Manuel Pacheco reported he was on patrol around 9:50 p.m. on Dec. 31 when he got a call about a white Dodge pickup truck driving around in circles in the parking lot of the Sears store at the Rhode Island Mall. He said he arrived to find the driver sitting in the driver’s seat, hunched over the wheel as the engine was running. He said he told the driver to shut off the engine but the man just stared at him before he shut it off and raised his hands in the air. He said the driver was incoherent and appeared to be drunk. He said the driver failed a field sobriety test and was taken to headquarters where he refused a breath test. Pacheco said he got a witness statement from the man who called in the drunk driver report. He said he first encountered the driver on Route 2 when he almost collided with the pickup as it sped past him getting off Route 37 and followed it as he called police. Jacob Patrick Herzig, 26, of 1808 NE 21st St. in Cape Coral, FL, was held without bail after it was learned that he was already out on bail for a charge of leaving the scene of an accident in November.